Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-03-09
L., q. reason Together.

fictitious disease, it is we'll for the COM
munity to treat the matter with the
utmost gravity, and.to look the dam
ger full in the face. Whilst it is not
veil to underrate the visitation, at the
same time great harm may be done
by magnifyipg the facts and drawing
from them unwarranted conclusions.
Lees harm will result from the pub
lication of the truth than from its sup
preston; for the truth, whatever 1t
may be, cannot be half as injuriousas
the wild speculations of mischievous
persons, who are permitted to make
their own facts. Los Angeles has
suffered more, during the past week,
from the uhbridled tongue OF rumor
than she could have done had the
disease with which We are wrestling
been epidemic instead of sporadic.
1t was therefore . wise resolution on
the part of the city authorities yester-
day to instruct the Health Officer to
give to the public, through the news
papers, daily bulletins of the exact
status Of the disease. When this is
done, it will be found that there is no
reason for the lengths to which the
present alarm has gone. What are
the facts? Mayor Workman assures
the people, in an official proclamation
published elsewhere, that since the
first case was reported, over three
weeks ago, there have only been
twenty-seven cases, ter of which are
convalescent, three of which have
died, and fourteen OF which are now
in the hospital or quarantined.
Any one who will take these
figures, and carefully analyze them,
will find, first, that the disease can
not be virulent. where there is only
one death in nine cases. Second,
that it is type easily treated, when
we have actually ten, convalescent
out OF the thirteen cases sent to the
hospital three weeks ago; and, third,
that it Is not making the slightest
progress towards the epidemic stage,
when the proportion OF deaths to the
number of cases is SO small. The
rule for determining when disease
has become epidemic is when the
number of deaths from the disease is
equal to all the deaths from all other
diseases during the same space OF
time. Now, the death rate during
the past three weeks was $50 that
the proportion from smallpox was
less than oDe-tenth of the whole.
This is very far from the epidemic
stage, and proves conclusively that
the visitation is of the mildest char
acter. If the State Board of Health
should commit the supreme folly of
quarantining Los Angeles under such
. state of facts, they would be pillo-
ried by just and indignant public
opinion. But let US see what all this
talk about quarantining our city
amounts to. The State Board OF
Health has the power to illuminate
any decree it sees fit to adopt. Be-
yond that it has no power. 1t has no
power to gay to the people of this
city you shall or you shall not leave
it. 1t has no power TO, say to any
other city, you shall not per-
NIT people from Los Angeles to
enter your boundaries, 1t can merely
exercise the power ofdeclaring what
it thinks, and that ends it. There.
fore anything they as Board might
do would only have force and effect
from its moral weight, and surely no
moral weight would attach to dec
laration quarantining Los Angeles as
against the showing OF Mayor Work
man. San Francisco, or no other
city, would for a moment think OF
placing the barrier of non-intercourse
between us and themselves after such
an official showing as is here given.
Whilst the facts of our situation,
fairly considered, will greatly
modify the wild exaggerations of
rumor, we are not disposed to under
rate their gravity. On the contrary, |
We admit that they are grave, and
grave enough; and therefore we wish
to see the authorities put forth the
utmost Of their power to stamp cut
the disease. we believe with the
Medical Faculty, and with all the
best intelligence Of the century, that
the surest and quickest way to stamp
out smallpox Is by vaccination and
re-vaccination, and by cleanliness
and the enforcement OF sanitary reg
ulations. Every man, woman and
child in the city ought to be vaccin-
ated at once. The Trustees of the
schools ought to adopt the rule which
exists in San Francisco, Sacramento
and other cities-refuse to permit
any child to attend school unless it
comes with certificate that it has
ben vaccinated. II this advice-it
- ~ ourn e comes from thesworld q
okpcri6nce ior Z century followed, |